A methodology for verifying request processing protocols

Abstract

In this paper, we view computer networks as distributed systems that provide their users with a set of services, in a way which hides the distinction between those services which are local and those which are remote. We conceive of a given target network configuration as a network of communicating virtual machines and its behavior is modelled by a system of communicating sequential processes. Network protocols are described by a high level concurrent language (CSP) and a methodology is developed which permits the verification of partial and total correctness assertions about the system in a simple and natural way. Global invariants are used to establish invariant properties of the whole system and histories to record the sequence of communication exchanges between every matching pair of processes. Eventuality properties are expressed using linear temporal logic.